and it's smooth sailing...Odoia Iemanja!

Since my godfather has more time these days, we have been having a misa/party for the orixas and egun every weekend. The one for Oxum last week was particularly cleansing and invigorating. This week, we are having one for Iemanja. Iemanja is celebrated on Dec 31st in Brazil. The beaches are crowded with devotees who make small boats filled with offerings to honor the Mother of the Waters. I like to call Iemanja, Miss 11:59 because she is the orixa who seems to bring in sudden change, at the last minute, and turns the situation around 360. She changes the tide, the current, and life becomes better. Where before there was a desert of despair, her waters wash away the sorrow and bring forth a garden of joy. So it is fitting that she is honored at midnight, on New Year's Eve/Day when the old year vanishes and a new one begins. Exu closes the doors to the past and opens the doors to the future.

I have a new godson too these days and my other goddaughter also visits from time to time. I am currently working through a training in Francisca de Grandis' 3rd Road Wicca tradition.

There appears to be a lot of new opportunities on the horizon, new love, prosperity, new direction. I hope you all are blessed with love, health, prosperity, and serenity in 2011. Ashe.

El Mar

Yesterday was Juneteenth, the day that commemorates when Union Soldiers in Galveston proclaimed that the Civil War had ended and slavery was abolished. For many African-Americans this day is a celebration of their African heritage and a day to honor the Ancestors and those who died in the Middle Passage.
The orisha Yemoja gained prominence in the Diaspora because of the Middle Passage. Many slaves jumped overboard and died rather than face a life of servitude, wanting to return to Guinen (Africa). The ones that survived gave thanks to Yemoja for getting them safe across the ocean. Now Yemoja back in Africa was a maternal goddess of the Ogun river and the lagoon just outside the ocean. Olokun was considered the god of the sea. In the New World because Yemoja was credited with helping those survive the horrible passage to the Americas, she was given greater prominence and honor. Yemoja then became the orisha of the the ocean and the Mother of all Life. In Brazil, Yemoja became a nation deity and there is a huge statue to her on the beaches of Sao Paolo.
The name Ye-mo-ja means Mothers whose children are fish. In Cuba and the Carribean she is Yemaya and in Brazil she is Iemanja, but she is the same wonderful Mother.
There are many aspects to Yemoja and she often gets stuck in this conception of a nurturing mother. She is very nurturing, however sometimes she is a warrior mother who will fight with a machete to defend the lives of her children. Sometimes she is a worker of magic, dwelling in the swamps and wharfs, rats delivering her messages and a snake wrapped around her. Sometimes she manifests as a sensual mermaid, looking at her beauty in her polished mirror of silver.
Slavery was a dark time in the history not only of the U.S. but throughout the Americas. The effects of this brutality still have echoing effects today. I think the 16th century in which the slave trade began and flourished was an oppressive time in general. In Europe, the Spanish Inquisition tortured Jews and Muslims, the Roman Inquisition did the same with heretics, In Protestant Northern Europe there was the same with the burning of witches and Jews. This is the mentality and activity the Europeans brought to the New World, with the slaughter of the Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, and the rape of natural resources in the Americas. Native Americans and Africans had respect for the land and its spirits, the Europeans hungering for Gold, God, and Glory did not.
I think I want to make that previous paragraph part of a larger essay so I will get back to Yemaya. The daughters of Yemaya surround me in my life, I have many friends initiated to Yemaya in Lucumi and my godsiblings in my ile, the majority have Yemaya as their head orisha or their secondary.My goddaughter one day will be crowned Iemanja. My mom was read by my Pai as a child of Yemaya Ogunte, the warrior aspect of Yemaya and wielder of magic. That sounds like my mom :) Even before the reading I called her "The Filipino Yemaya"
So today I give thanks to the Mother of All Life, Yemaya, Iemanja, Yemoja, Queen of the Sea, protector of women and the family. She has blessed my life by putting so many of her beautiful children in to my life
Odoia Iemanja!! Omio Yemaya!!!

Puerto Rican Day Festival

I went to the Puerto Rican day festival in Spanish Harlem (116th and 3rd Av) today.
Even the rain could not stop us from dancing to reggaeton, salsa and bachata. I saw four people with boa constrictors. Not a big fan of snakes but I was actually not bothered by them. I took a picture of the mosaic by Manuel Vega, a Puerto Rican artist and Candomble priest of Oxossi. He did another one of Yemaya in the same location. These two mosaics are located in the 110th street subway station on the 6 line. It is absolutely beautiful. Kao Kabiosille Shango!!!